September 6, 2012
Global Competitiveness Ranking: Malaysia slides faom 21st to 25th Slot
by Koh Jun Lin (09-05-12)@http://www.malaysiakini.com
Malaysia has dropped from 21st to 25th slot out of 144 countries in global competitiveness, according to the Global Competitiveness Report 2012 – 2013.
The annual report, released by the World Economic Forum (WEF) today, also shows that Malaysia’s ‘technological readiness’ is ranked 51st, maintaining a five-year downtrend.
This was despite the overall score remaining relatively steady at 5.06 points out of a maximum of seven points, compared to 5.08 previously.
“Malaysia and other countries are putting in a lot of initiatives. There are four countries which are faster growing in terms of their competitiveness here, and they are South Korea (ranked 19th), Luxemburg (22nd), New Zealand (23rd) and the United Arab Emirates (24th),” said Malaysia Productivity Corporation (MPC) Senior Director Lee Saw Hoon in explaining the drop in ranking.
Lee was speaking at a press conference at MPC’s headquarters in Petaling Jaya today in conjunction with the release of the report.She also said that the report also “upgrades” Malaysia’s status from an efficiency-driven economy to a country that is “in transition” to an innovation-driven economy.
In the report, the criteria for the latter classification is to have a gross domestic product (GDP) per capita between USD9,000 to USD17,000 and the change entails a shift in the weightage of various performance indicators towards those that promote innovation.
The report also places Malaysia’s competitiveness second to Singapore in the Asean region, and eighth in the Asia-Pacific region.
Low level of technological readiness
With regard to Malaysia’s technological readiness, the report notes three areas that require improvement, namely: international internet bandwidth in kilobits per second per user (ranked 83rd), broadband internet subscriptions per 100 population (68th) and mobile broadband subscriptions per 100 population (64th).
“Its (Malaysia’s) low level of technological readiness (51st) is surprising, especially given its achievements in other areas of innovation and business sophistication and the country’s focus on promoting the use of ICT.
“Lack of progress in this area will significantly undermine Malaysia’s efforts to become a knowledge-based economy by the end of the decade,” the report wrote.
In a press statement today, International Trade and Industry Minister Mustapa Mohamed said there is a discrepancy between perception and what the data shows, and does not reflect Malaysia’s actual condition.
“Towards this end, the government will ensure that consolidated and comprehensive data and information is provided to international data sources such as the International Communications Union and the World Intellectual Property Organisation,” he said.
Mustapa (right) added that the upcoming launch of the 1Malaysia Affordable Broadband Package could be expected to improve the situation.
Meanwhile the report also praised Malaysia’s markets for being “efficient and competitive” and supported by both a well-developed financial sector (ranked 6th) and business-friendly institutional frameworks (28th).
The report further praised the government’s efforts to combat excessive bureaucracy and lack of transparency, saying, “in a region where many economies suffer from lack of transparency and the presence of red tape, Malaysia stands out as particularly successful at tackling those tow issues.”
Regardless, in an opinion poll of 79 business executives in Malaysia conducted as part of the report, respondents still reported inefficient government bureaucracy as the biggest problem for doing business in Malaysia, followed by corruption and an inadequately educated workforce.
Congrats Malaysia. You can, slide. But never mind. The report is biased against the country. It is not accurate, Corruption and inept management of the economy are Najib’s strong points. Time to go, my man Najib.
“what the data shows, and does not reflect Malaysia’s actual condition.”
Same cock and bull from the BN gov. when opinion is against it.
Yeah right! So long it’s not in your favour, you rubbish it. Then why relate to them in the first place. Between, I simply takdak faham how offering 1 Malaysia broadband programme can alleviate poverty in places such as Sabah. No sense of priority. Any how spend like his grandfather money
“…International Trade and Industry Minister Mustapa Mohamed said there is a discrepancy between perception and what the data shows, and does not reflect Malaysia’s actual condition.”
Learn a word a day.
Looks like bro Mustapha has also caught the ‘perception’ disease. He and his compatriots in the cabinet must be pretty impressed with that word. Its length probably making them think they sound learned. Just like Bush’s books that got burned. Poor guy was upset as he hadn’t finished coloring them.
What a great thing perception is. It allows one to wallow in mediocrity while pretending everything is coming up roses.
Anyone still believe that Tokpa is among the better ones of the rotten BN bunch? The one-eyed in the land of the blind thing?
Oh, well. We can dream on can’t we? As Wilde, I think, said “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”
we are waaaay much better than zimbabwe…. that’s a good thing
As usual when reading is against the nation “there is a discrepancy between perception and what the data shows, and does not reflect Malaysia’s actual condition”. but it will be front page headline news and all leaders clamoring for all sorts of praises when the report shows there is a slight improvement even though it may not be that good compared to others….bla bla bla…
The Singapore report states, “Singapore has maintained its position as the world’s second most competitive economy, missing out on top spot to Switzerland which kept the title for the fourth year running, the World Economic Forum (WEF) said in its annual survey on Wednesday”.
The above report states, “The report also places Malaysia’s competitiveness second to Singapore in the Asean region, and eighth in the Asia-Pacific region”.
Many times our reports are rather misleading. This is a WEF survey for the entire world not Asean or Asia-Pacific. Why don’t we report justly and not picking on others to redirect the attention elsewhere? Another public relation spin?
No worries. Like North Korea, we can still ignore
unfavourable reports from the West and proclaim that we are the
“world’s best”
I can hear the sounds of violin…
Long before it begins…
Only you and I know how…
Sway me now…
Sway me now…
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The cousins can keep on slip sliding all nite long coz they don’t give two hoot if this country is in the longkang…
Everybody compliant Singapore is expensive how is it that they are world second most competitive economy? Any expert would like to enlighten us?
When you touch bottom you cannot slide anymore. What, Bendover Singh? You can??
Malaysia sliding but I’m still eating my lamb chop says Kerismuddin